Our Body Tells Us the Truth

Here is a story on trusting our body, our breath, and our mind to lead us to a place of inner freedom. I learned a few things as a result of practicing and teaching yoga and mindfulness for twenty one years. Your body tells the truth and your brain makes up very convincing stories. Here is one such story (it involves tiny birds and unstable branches). I woke up this morning with a sore neck. I was dancing, bouncing, shaking and twisting away 2020 and I guess my enthusiasm to wring it out was a little more than was necessary. Sometimes I can overdo. Sometimes I don’t do enough. So I got down on the floor and started moving, paying close attention to those tight muscles in my neck.

Getting Curious

I was curious and gentle, not pushing the pain away and not ignoring it just to power through. As I felt into the sensations, I looked out the living room window and saw two birds in the blustery, gray skies land on the very tippy tops of a tree in my front yard. The branches were not at all big and strong and the winds were gusty and continuous. The birds choose those spindly branches among all the other possibilities. I watched for a while. What I noticed was this: those birds are not putting their trust in the wispy branches that mysteriously still holds them, in spite of oppressive conditions. They trust their own inner guidance, their capacity to take flight when the time is right, they adjust to changing conditions with grace and ease.

Feeling Into Trust

There are moments in life when the desire to find stable, solid, reliable ground is my primary goal. Now is not one of those moments. Finding stability is not moving forward and I am in a forward moving phase. This transition from 2020 to 2021 is a moment that feels rich with possibility and I intend to trust that feeling. Like the birds, I do not place my trust in external supports and a safe place to land (not that there is anything wrong with that), I choose to take a bolder, more authentic approach today and trust myself. It is less about balance today and more about the juicy choice point.

Listening to Inside Info

Relying on logic and a well thought out plan, detailed action steps and measurable goals backed by a proven method of success is one way to cultivate stability. It is also a limiting way to live and safety is not ever guaranteed. Not a bad way to proceed but not a method I want to worship entirely. What I am feeling today is free, spontaneous and rebellious. What I am placing my faith in is equally valuable. I trust my intuition, my inner guiding wisdom, what I know I know without knowing how I know. Sounds convoluted but it actually makes a whole lot of sense. I trust my body that always tells me the truth. The sore muscles in my neck, yes, the truth is, I got a bit wild and showed off, so my body lets me know, hey, that move was forced, not at all coming from inner guidance, so here you go, soreness to slow you down. “Thank you, I am listening now.” I say to myself.

Stepping Forward On Faith

Today, I have a sense of what might work and I have a loose plan towards a mindful emergence. How all the details will unfold over the next year, I cannot be sure, and yet I have courage and faith in myself in the process. I seem fairly straight and narrow on the outside, but I have a rebel inside that wants to live by her own rules. If those birds birds can trust themselves to fly, I have a feeling I can trust myself too.

Learn how to trust your body, your breath, and your mind to lead you to a place of inner freedom.